Democrat Dan McCready is suddenly in a competitive race for North Carolina’s 9th District. McCready is in many ways a dream candidate. He is another Marine vet and the founder of a solar power investment company. And he is running on a platform of abolishing both Citizens United and gerrymandering, expanding access to health care, and protecting teachers and veterans.

But McCready’s chances were boosted even more on Tuesday night when incumbent Rep. Robert Pittenger lost his primary — the first sitting Republican this cycle to do so.

The new GOP nominee who dethroned him, Baptist preacher Mark Harris, is a far-right firebrand whose anti-LGBT activism was a driving force behind the passage of North Carolina’s infamous “bathroom bill.”

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, McCready enters the general election with a massive fundraising advantage, having raised a war chest of $1.2 million. Harris’ cash on hand? Just $70,000.

"The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press." - Ida B. Wells-Barnett, journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, feminist and founder with others of NAACP.

He is a Baptist minister who opposes gay marriage, a Republican who is critical of his party’s leaders in Congress, and a candidate who ran a shoestring campaign against a House incumbent. And on Wednesday, Mark Harris found himself in another role: A giant-killer of the 2018 midterm elections.

Mr. Harris beat Representative Robert Pittenger in a Republican primary in North Carolina on Tuesday, making Mr. Pittenger the first incumbent from either party to lose his seat in Congress due to a primary challenger this year.

House Republicans were already concerned about Mr. Pittenger’s chances against the well-funded Democratic nominee, the Iraq war veteran Dan McCready, but believed he would fend off the challenge from Mr. Harris, who instead beat him by fewer than 1,000 votes. ...

Mr. Harris, 52, will now face a Democrat whose campaign war chest vastly outmatches his own: Last month, Mr. McCready’s campaign had more than $1.2 million in the bank, while Mr. Harris had just $70,000. Mr. McCready beat a primary challenger of his own, Christian Cano, with more than 82 percent of the vote.

Mr. Harris, who nearly unseated Mr. Pittenger two years ago, won by portraying the three-term incumbent as a Washington insider who violated the spirit of a 2012 campaign pledge to support term limits. He also criticized Mr. Pittenger for his vote in favor of a $1.3 trillion spending bill, which was both signed and rebuked by President Trump in March.

A Democrat who talks like a Republican could steal a major NC race from the GOP ...

On paper, a socially conservative Republican should trounce just about any Democrat here in North Carolina’s Ninth District, which stretches from south suburban Charlotte east through more rural counties to the Fayetteville area. It went for President Donald Trump by nearly 12 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election and is a decades-long GOP stronghold.

Yet like so many other typically Republican districts across the country, this year, it is very much in play.

Part of that is because progressives are energized, raring to defeat Trump at every electoral level, and they are activating here and nationwide. And part of it is because moderate suburban women who have little affinity for the Democratic Party are increasingly uncomfortable with today’s GOP — a party now defined by unshakable loyalty to Trump.

But perhaps most critically, the Democratic candidate here has figured out how to sound downright conservative as he talks about “regulatory relief” and respect for the military; his relationship with his pastor and his opposition to Nancy Pelosi. That helps as he aggressively targets the center-right moderates he will need to win over, knowing that he has the liberal vote around Charlotte all sewn up.

Now, the Ninth District race is emerging as a national test of just how far a potential 2018 Democratic wave can push into traditional GOP territory — and whether other conservative districts, from eastern Washington to the Little Rock, Ark. area to suburban Cincinnati, could suddenly be in jeopardy for Republicans.

Simple. He's for good things. And he's also against bad things. With just the slightest tinge of blue.

Message From Dan McCready

When I think of what I love about this country, I think of my platoon. We had folks from all over. But it didn’t matter where we came from, or who our parents were, or what color our skin was. It didn’t even matter whether we were Republicans or Democrats. Because we all wore the same uniform.

I’m not a politician. I’m a Marine Corps veteran, a small business owner, and a father of four. I was perfectly happy last year to spend time with my kids and continue building my small business, but I feel called now to fight back for North Carolina families that Washington politicians are leaving behind.

Too many politicians show up to Washington with good intentions, but then they forget who sent them there. They only fight for themselves and the special interests. I believe that any person who works hard and plays by the rules should be able to build a better life for their kids. I hope you’ll join this campaign to put country over party and turn our country around.

Yours in this fight,

Reforming Our Broken Politics

Dan believes our American Dream is under attack from politicians who put partisanship before people and special interests before working families. Dan will put country over party. He’ll take on the politicians by fighting to impose term limits for members of Congress, get money out of politics and end Citizens United, defeat gerrymandering, and stand up to the politics of racism and hatred.

Affordable and Accessible Healthcare

Dan knows we have to fix our broken and unaffordable healthcare system once and for all with common-sense solutions that lower out-of-control costs while maintaining quality coverage. That means standing up to big drug companies to lower prescription costs, strengthening Medicare, and fighting to stop insurance companies from raising premiums year after year and going back to the days of trying to kick people off their coverage.

Creating Jobs Across North Carolina

As a small business owner, Dan has helped put hundreds of North Carolinians to work building solar farms in rural North Carolina. He was a leader in making our state second in the US for solar power. In Congress, he’ll use his business experience to work with both parties to lift wages and increase opportunity. That means working across the aisle to bring good-paying jobs in growing sectors like clean energy and smart infrastructure, and fighting for jobs in North Carolina’s rural counties that Washington politicians have left behind.

Standing Up for Our Seniors

Dan knows how hard North Carolina seniors worked to save for their retirement and the importance of preserving Social Security and Medicare for our middle class. Dan will oppose any efforts by corporate special interests to turn Medicare into a risky voucher program and any efforts to turn Social Security over to the stock market and gamble seniors’ retirement.

Quality Education

Dan is a product of North Carolina public schools, and he understands that education is the pathway to opportunity. Dan believes that every child in America should be able to go to a great public school, no matter where they live. Dan will fight for early childhood education, teacher pay, and alternatives to four-year degrees like community college and job training programs that equip North Carolinians for the jobs of tomorrow.

Small Business and Fiscal Responsibility

In his small business, Dan balanced the budget and made payroll. We should expect the same from Congress. That’s why Dan supports a “No Budget, No Pay” act. Dan understands that business can be a force for good that lifts up families and workers. He will work to simplify the tax code, streamline duplicative regulations, and cut taxes for middle-class families, not just the ultra-wealthy.

Protecting Our Veterans

For Dan, veterans issues aren’t political, they’re personal. The veterans who have sacrificed for our country deserve the best care our country has to offer, but too many in North Carolina are being left behind without the care they need. That’s unacceptable. Veterans will have no stronger advocate than Dan on health care, mental health, education, jobs, and transition to civilian life.

Protecting God’s Planet

Dan believes that God calls us to be stewards of the Earth, for our children and grandchildren. But politicians are taking a hatchet to the EPA and looking the other way while companies pollute North Carolina’s drinking water. Dan will fight for clean air and water and to preserve our state’s natural beauty that he learned to love as an Eagle Scout.

Fighting for the Lumbee Tribe

After more than a century of injustice, the Lumbee Indian tribe still lacks full federal recognition. Yet instead of doing the hard work of finding a deal, Congress continues the same-old lip service, with bills still stuck in subcommittee. Dan knows how to negotiate — that’s how he helped build 36 solar farms across North Carolina. He will do everything in his power to fight for full federal recognition.